Alice
Alice (アリス, Arisu) is a Shinigami who directly gives L a Death Note after he became a detective. She was known as the goddess of creation and death until she was bored and decided to head to the human world. She is idolized as a "perfect woman" to many Shinigami in the Shinigami realm. Appearance Unlike many Shinigami, Alice has a very humanoid appearance, looking exactly like a human with not much of a different except for her unnatural beauty. She has black hair and red eyes. Biography Alice/Lilith (real name: Izanami-no-mikoto) is a main character and anti-heroine/anti-villainess of the Death Note series, as well as the protagonist in "Alice: Izanami-no-mikoto". The so-called 'Queen' Shinigami, Alice was an individual difficult to pin down by any standard of "good" or "evil" societal mores. She was both ruthlessly tormented and was also a sadistic tormentor to others, driven to a mental breakdown at an early age by the cruelty that surrounded her. Though she never expected to receive any form of love and acceptance from others, occasionally she got the chance to see that such things were, indeed, possible for someone like her. Her great love was L, a boy she met when they were both children. Personality Alice suffered from Dissociative Identity Disorder and had developed up to three different and distinct mental personas over the course of her life. Alice Personality Alice's default persona is a middle ground between the personalities of Lilith and The Voice. Since others discriminated against her, Alice is quiet, withdrawn, and guards her emotions carefully. As shown with both L and later Aiko Takada, she didn't know how to react to people being kind to her other than being embarrassed. She even let her emotions slip around them and became quickly thrown off when her only two friends praised her or caught her acting in any way other than calm, cool, and collected. Since L was the first person to show her kindness, Alice's feelings about him were deeply affectionate and intense, yet fraught with guilt and shame as well. She wanted nothing more than to be by his side. L's impact on her and her wish to apologize to him drove the plot forward. She only seemed to show hesitation for hurting people if it looked like L would find out she did it, and her desire to refrain from again causing him pain is why she doesn't kill or harm Misa, or at least very much. She'll still punch her, but that's the extent of it. After witnessing her dog's murder at the hands of the bullies, she began to develop a deep hatred of Humans, killing whole families just to use their houses, without regret or guilt. Shortly after this, she began to hear a voice in her head telling her to forget about coexisting with humans and offering her the chance to remake the world to her liking. After accepting The Voice's offer, Alice deferred to its suggestions by killing some Humans by way of inducing heart attacks and spreading her genes to Male Humans, who would have Shinigami children who would, in turn, kill and infect more. As she grew up, Alice's view of killing people changed. In general, Alice saw the situation as zero-sum, and though she was shown lamenting resorting to killing people to stay safe, Alice did nothing to resist The Voice's direction. Feeling this was what she must do, Alice continued killing people anyway. However, Alice made a brief attempt to reform herself by helping Aiko, as the thought came that helping Aiko reunite with her mother would prove the person she had become wasn't just a murderer. Unfortunately, things didn't turn out as planned, and the girl's death focused all of her hatred toward humans in general into seeking vengeance against Kurama for Aiko's death. Her driving goal, aside from apologizing to L, became the desire to see Kurama suffer by her hurting those around him, which she happily acted upon by maiming Nana and Mariko as soon as she learned their connection to him. Even Kisaragi's death at the beginning of the series would not have been so brutal if Alice hadn't found out of her relationship with L. For most of the series, Alice was incredibly blase about killing others. She even thought about killing L until he showed her kindness, and even after the massacre, she didn't show any remorse for killing those who harassed her. Alice didn't shy away from being unnecessarily brutal and gleefully dismembered them in varies ways, laughing at each one of them and overall behaving like a cat tormenting a mouse. She didn't even mind using other people as weapons against her opponents. Also notable is that she could be something of a hypocrite when fighting, as she would lengthen someone's suffering when she had the upper hand, yet was impatient and irritated when it was the other way around or when her opponent appeared overconfident. Also interesting to note is that when fighting others, Alice's posture changes. Most times, her posture will be hunched forward, almost animalistic, as she stares down her target from behind her hair. Toward other opponents, however, her posture is straighter, more confident. This change in posture can be taken to mean she views opponents such as Kurama, Nana, Mariko, and Bandou differently than regular humans, whom she kills with an aura, not unlike a wolf hunting prey. Her straightened posture could be a sign of her acknowledging their greater threat to her, as well as giving her the chance to look down on them when she gains the upper hand. For someone so morose, Alice commented twice on her tendency to be an unwitting audience to father's having meaningful talks with their children, both times being when Kakuzawa or Kurama had moving dialogues with their daughters. Alice made it obvious she didn't care for humans and didn't count them as people. Her hatred for them culminated in her viewing other Shinigami, of whom she'd never actually seen any others besides herself, as "real people" compared to lowly humans. However, Alice's regard for her kind was puzzling. She didn't appear to hold much of attachment or loyalty to other Shinigami, as she had no problem attacking Nana and Mariko when it became apparent they would pose a problem to her freedom (though she did offer Nana one chance to leave). At one point, however, she had already told her half-brother that the end for their species was coming soon anyway. It wasn't clear if she believed their race should die from the trouble they caused or because their lives were just endless suffering and torture. Given her view of humanity, it was most likely the latter. Also, despite her critical position as the single fertile Shinigami, Alice didn't seem to have any interest in perpetuating her line and legacy. After learning of her mother's death, she killed her brother and Kakuzawa both but didn't grieve long for her mother due to her wish to leave the island to return home. Killing her younger brother, like the killing of the other Shinigami, might have been to prevent him living a miserable life like her own, as evident from her remorse over killing him in his innocence. Lilith Personality In Alice's words, Lilith is the kind of woman she would have been if she hadn't been born a Shinigami. Lilith first appeared on Yuigahama after Alice received a cranial wound from a 50 caliber rifle bullet. Mentally, Lilith had the intelligence of a toddler, which gave her a very ignorant and sheltered view of the world, a very narrow sense of right and wrong as a child would have, and she was easily frightened by bloodshed and violence. In all other aspects, she was a kind, sweet, innocent, and very naive girl. She cared for others more than herself, such as offering Mayu or Nana her food when they were hungry and risking her health in the rain to replace the seashell so dear to L that she broke. Later, Lilith's persona predominated and remained for six months. Lilith matured significantly over those six months: she began to learn the basic morals and norms of society, learned how to speak properly, coherently, and in complete sentences, how to cook, clean, and, thankfully, to show at least some restraint on her sexual curiosity. She was even shocked and appalled at the idea of her groping anyone when Yuka and Mayu reminded her she used to do that to them. To better show her growth from a mental toddler to an ordinary woman in the manga, Lilith refers to everyone using proper Japanese honorifics. This shift puts her in contrast to Alice, who uses no honorifics at all (ex: Lilith always refers to L as "L-san," whereas Alice only ever calls him "L"). DNA Voice It cannot be confirmed from evidence in the series whether or not this personality, supposedly the voice of Alice's Shinigami DNA, actually existed or was merely the embodiment of the young girl's profound alienation and pain. All that's known is that she named it The Voice of her DNA. The Voice first called out to her after the death of her puppy, and Alice heard it even more as she feared L had betrayed her. It was a compelling voice that Alice often gave into, yet she stated that it never actually controlled her but merely guided her, and she willingly gave in to its demands. Nana seemed to hear a similar voice on at least two occasions in which she felt she had no place in the world, and the Mariko clone Barbara said that she heard a voice urging her to kill all Humans as well. Since both Nana and Barbara suffered cruelly at the Institute, it isn't clear whether the DNA Voice is something all Shinigami possess or if the young minds of Alice and the other Shinigami created such personalities as ways of coping with their lives. The idea that it may have been more of a split personality than an actual echo of Shinigami DNA and base instinct is given strength by the fact that it did briefly take over Alice's body as she was close to death. L dismissed this voice as a variant of impulses all people have to struggle with, but best evidence also contains no information from the anime or manga that rejects this possibility either, leaving it an open question and one of the series' greatest unresolved mysteries. The personality of Alice's particular DNA Voice was that of a cold, sadistic, hate-twisted, manipulative, obsessive-compulsive and truly psychopathic killer without guilt or remorse. She had a strong wish to destroy all of the Humanity and replace it with Shinigami, in which she would possibly rule the world since she is, in essence, a Queen Shinigami. She also had no qualms in trying to convince Alice and later Lilith that all Humans were vile creatures that truly needed to die, and was even willing to kill L and company at any cost, regardless of their compassion towards her, to achieve this. Near the end of the manga series when she manages to gain full control of her then mortally wounded body, and L is urged by Alice and Lilith to shoot and kill her with a nearby gun. He backs down at the last moment, unwilling to kill his long-time friend no matter how much she wronged him in the past, even though Alice and Lilith's illusions are now fading away, unable to protect him anymore, and the DNA Voice is now in full control. Despite this sudden freedom to finally kill him and his friends/family as she pleases, the DNA Voice paused. Seemingly shocked and perhaps even moved by L's love for her, or more likely in too much pain to want to continue her onslaught, it ceases all attacks and uses a single hand to hand him the gun again. As she whimpers quietly about the pain wracking her ruined body, L finally shoots her to put her out of her misery. In the end, it's not clear if The Voice gave in and allowed her death out of surprise for L showing compassion for her or being overwhelmed by pain, but it's possible both motivated her. Though Alice and Lilith are implied to have been reborn, it's unknown if the third personality was reborn as well. Character Alice is different from most Shinigami as she left the Shinigami realm in search of something fun to do, however she is idolized by all the Shinigami, who consider her a "perfect woman". Being the goddess of Death, she is often conflicted with the idea of love and life, but began to understand because of L. She is the childhood friend of L and has learned love because of him. Relationships L All three personas had intense feelings for L. Alice was devoted to him since childhood; Lilith literally since birth. The Voice may have wished to rid itself of him, but saved its ace of actually controlling Alice's actions for life and death situations. Once this power was used, especially against L, its game would be up. Instead, it waited for the situation it and Alice had created to cause him to turn against her. While he did this, his actions immediately after also removed all doubt from Alice's mind, leading ultimately to the Voice's mercy killing at his hands. L was a friend to Young Alice, though he only met the Alice persona a handful of times, almost always very briefly. His noted denseness and his lack of understanding of the depths of Alice's solitude left him unaware of just how much he meant to her, and perhaps how much she meant to him. L could be called a bit of a father figure and older brother to Lilith, both when she was infantile and when she matured. Trivia * Alice's name means "Of the nobility." It comes from the German Adalheidis meaning nobility, and the French Adeliz which is a form of Adelaide. * Alice's real name, Izanami-no-Makoto, is based off of the Japanese Mythology version of death, which is a goddess, she was the former wife of the god of creation and life called Izanagi-no-Mikoto. Izanami died after giving birth to the god of fire Kagu-tsuchi, after he burnt her to death, Iazanagi followed her to the underworld and tried but failed to bring her back to the living world. A marital spat between them caused the cycle of life and death for all living things. * It is slightly foreshadowed in both openings that Alice had killed herself. Quotes * "You know who isn't human? You know who isn't human?... PEOPLE LIKE YOU!" (past) * "As a rule they say humans haunted by a Shinigami have nothing but misfortune. I'm sorry." * "I can understand them, because they can exchange that money for tons of apples." * "Apples in the human world are worth the trip. What's the best way to describe these...juicy." * "Let's just say this: you will feel the fear and pain known only to humans who've used the notebook. And when it's your time to die, it will fall on me to write your name in my death note. Be warned any human who's used a Death Note can neither go to heaven nor hell for eternity. That's all. *laughs*" * "I'm afraid that the trust of me will be the fate of you." * "L. Why are you...Why are you so kind to me. I...I'm a...monster." Category:Characters